Idlis are always a welcome breakfast at home as both my daughters love to have them, steaming hot and with a generous spill of ghee melted to a sunshine golden yellow, and some sugar sprinkled on top of that. YUM…is the only word she keeps re-iterating again and again. When she was smaller, and hadnt started talking, she would simply finish off the idlis in minutes, and sometimes, lick the little bowl clean of all the ghee and sugar…only moments after my head is turned to wash my hands and pick up the little one to wash and wipe her face!!! She is almost 7 now and she still loves them. The other day I had made Rava Idlis, and she simply refused to touch them. I had added peas, carrots and onions but it was of no use. She wanted white soft plain idlis and that was that. This weekend, I tried my oats idlis with the added incentive that I would flavour it with yoghurt/buttermilk. She was willing to give it a go. I used the same method as I would for the Rava Idlis, only I substituted most of the rava, with oats. No rice…at all, no fermenting, and pretty much on the go. Give it a try and you`ll realise just how delish it is. My daughter thought so too..

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Old Fashioned Oats.

1 Cup Rava.

1 Carrot Grated.

1 Onion finely diced. (Optional).

1 Tbsp Coconut Powder/ Fresh Grated Coconut.

3 Cups Diluted Buttermilk. (The more sour, the more tastier).

1 Tsp Baking Soda.

Salt to taste.

Hing.

A handful of finely chopped cilantro.

2 Tsp Flax seed powder.

Seasoning:

Mustard.

Curry Leaves.

Cashew Nuts Chopped.(Optional).

Hing.

2 Green Chillies chopped finely.

PREPARATION:

Roast the 2 cups of old fashioned oats in a dry and hot tava for 4-5 minutes on medium low flame. Set aside.

Roast the 1 cup of rava/semolina for 3 minutes until you get the aroma. Set aside.

Powder the oats coarsely in the mixer, take care that you don`t powder it too fine. The coarseness adds a lot of character to the final dish, in my opinion.

In a kadai add a spoon of oil and when hot add cashew nuts, green chillies, curry leaves,mustard seeds and hing. When it comes together toss it in to the bowl along with the other ingredients.

Add the 2 cups of buttermilk and with the third cup, add it little by little so that the batter does not become runny. The consistency should be like the batter of rava idlis. You should be able to pour and it will fall slowly.

Mix in all the ingredients well and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes as this works on the baking soda and airs the batter a little.

Grease idli plates and pour out the dough , steam in pressure cooker WITHOUT WEIGHT for 10-12 minutes.

Switch off the cooker and after 2-3 minutes remove the plates.

Splash a few drops of water on the idlis and using a spoon dipped in water, slowly scoop out the Oats Idlis.

Serve piping hot Oats Idlis with Tomato Peanut Chutney.

HINTS:

I used diluted buttermilk as I wanted the Idlis to be light and fluffy. Feel free to use regular buttermilk or beaten curd diluted with water.

Onions are completely optional. I used it for an extra zing on the taste.

Cashew Nuts and flax seed powder are also an optional additions. I use flax seed powder mainly for the fibre content.

The consistency largely depends on the kind and brand of rava, oats and other ingredients. Take the water measurements as a benchmark and experiment on the kitchens!!!

you hardly even smell o r taste the oats in there….its almost like the kanchipuram idli mix…oats has basically no smell or taste…so its cool…a light idli and no one knows whats in there…am thinking ill try one with quinoa next!!!

thanks for this recipe my f.i.l. being dibietic it will be very useful for me ,he gets fed up eating ragi dosas and oats cooked plain send me some more oats recipes i will try this one and give u feedback bye.

I am guessing you can add rice flour??? Basically Idlis are made with rice, and urad dhal, so i am guessing you can substitute that…You could also try buckwheat, / coarse cracked wheat, which is excellent for diabetes, a little flaxseed powder and a little rice flour. Since the quantity of rava is pretty low, you can easily use buckwheat for the same!!! Do try it and let me know.

I have been following few of your posts, and I have tried some recipes. I like the way you write your post.
I am from Bangalore, a mother of a 1 yr old baby girl(picky eater).
Quick question about the idlis: How many idlis can you make with these portions of rava and oats?

Hi, I tried the recipe with idli rava. The taste is too good but the idli is kind of breaking/ falling apart while taking it out of plate. Could it be because I have added 1/2 cup more buttermilk than what you have specified?

Thanks for responding. I added soda as mentioned in recipe and the batter was not dry or liquidy. It did look like that of in the photo but i had to add more buttermilk than what is mentiones in recipe to get that consistency. I minced the carrots to tiny size rather than grating it. I shall try again and let you how it turned out